She passed to the south of the island during the late night, but by then it was clear Barbados had been spared the brunt of her predicted 60-miles-an-hour winds and rains.

Government's decision to have a complete shutdown by 11:30 a.m. afforded swift movement of traffic out of The City and adequate time for commercial and domestic preparation, but Emily turned out to be a breeze. By comparison to Ivan of last September 7, Emily was gentle.

Wind gusts of just 40 miles per hour – half of the intensity of Ivan – were experienced, and rainfall was restricted to short bursts, mainly in the morning and early afternoon. A few houses lost their roofs, while some aging trees were felled.

At 7 p.m., with the weather system 125 miles south of the island and moving west, Chester Layne, Director of Meteorological Services, stopped short of giving the all-clear, saying Barbados would be kept under a tropical storm warning as long as the hazardous winds extending 115 miles from Emily's centre persisted.

At that time the north-east coast of Tobago, Grenada and St Vincent faced the greatest threat.

The warning for Barbados was discontinued at 9 p.m.

With a full 24 hours to prepare for the anticipated onslaught by the season's first serious weather system in the Eastern Caribbean, Barbadians never panicked. Bridgetown and other commercial centres were virtual "ghost towns" and both Transport Board buses and the private PSVs disgorged their last passengers around 1 p.m.

But in the early afternoon, as a brilliant Caribbean sun emerged from behind a few grey clouds, it would become increasingly clear that the anticipated 2 p.m. weather onslaught would